Repurposing on Hold for Turner Nets

After touting the benefits of repurposing broadcast networks' shows on cable,
Turner Broadcasting System Inc. chairman Jamie Kellner is reassessing the
current model because advertisers failed to provide enough financial support to
Turner Network Television's Charmed airings.

The WB Television Network has no plans to repurpose any of its six new
original shows scheduled for the 2002-03 season on TNT or any other
Turner-affiliated cable network, Kellner said Tuesday at the broadcast network's
annual upfront presentation for advertisers.

Also, The WB will unbundle TNT's week-delayed window of the originalCharmed installments from its presentation to advertisers. The WB had
been packaging both its and TNT's airing of the female-skewing drama in an
effort to draw advertisers to cable. Instead, TNT will sell its Charmed
telecasts on its own, beginning next season.

While advertisers bought time during TNT's Charmed window, Kellner
said, the cable network was only able to extract between 50 percent and 70
percent of the CPM (cost per thousand homes) that The WB garnered for the series
despite increasing viewership with virtually no duplication from the broadcast
network's telecast.

'We tried to get the advertising community to support our repurposing
efforts,' Kellner said. 'We will [now] wait until the advertisers say we should
do it.'

Kellner added, however, that there may be an opportunity for TNT or TBS
Superstation to tie into The WB's original movie, The Lone Ranger --
which does not yet have an air date -- if it's green-lit as a backdoor series
pilot.

TNT executives have talked about developing a repurposing arrangement with a
new series rather than an established skein.